Oh, Happy Day! {The Living Room Before and After}

The ceilings have been scraped. They have been painted.

The walls have been repainted. The furniture has been put back in place.

And we have a new and improved den!

Before:

Notice the unfinished ceilings and the horrible yellow paint that is more suitable for a nursery than a den

AFTER!

The living room is on its way to joining the 21st century! I love the new paint color (Valspar Churchill Hotel Wheat). New lamp shades and a new rug are on their way!

Tearing up the Place

Our house has gone from bad to worse. In the process of prepping the ceiling for primer and paint, we discovered that there is (was) wallpaper under the layers of paint in our kitchen. Hideous, blue and brown striped wallpaper. Yuck!

So, in addition to sanding the ceiling last night, I also had to begin the process of ripping the painted wallpaper down so that our new paint will go on smoothly (lest we create even MORE work for ourselves). Our house honestly looks like some homeless squatters should be living it in! (Pics to come!)

And to make things even worse, Landon broke his right hand falling off of a ladder Tuesday night, so I'm the only able-bodied one for the time being. What ELSE could happen???

I just want to finish all of the painting by the time Landon has some friends down in July for a bachelor party (not his own, but a friend of ours). If we're done painting, I can at least put the furniture back in place before they get here.

More Thoughts on the Kitchen

Here's our kitchen now:

Look at those horrid beige counters and that atrocious backsplash. You can't see the inside of the cabinets, but they are made of (deteriorating) particle board that really needs replacing. Luckily, the appliances are all new, so we don't have to update those!

And here's how the kitchen will look after the renovation (as per my own brilliant sketch!):

Everything's staying in more or less the same configuration, but we're just updating the way it looks. We also plan on adding drawers instead of the cabinets that currently exist on either side of the oven. The drawers will have organizational racks to help tame the insane tangle of our pots and pans. In a quick, cosmetic change, we'll paint the entire kitchen (and living room, since it's attached) a darker beige to better coordinate than the current pale yellow.

We're hoping these upgrades will make our life here a bit easier and will also help with the resale value of our house down the road. After all, a kitchen is where people gather most, and we want to make our kitchen a living space that works with what we need, rather than against it, like it's currently doing.

Countertops

The fun thing about a kitchen renovation is that you get to think about elements of your kitchen that you'd rarely considered before, such as countertops, pull knobs and tiling.

For our countertops, we know we want a darker color in a solid material. We're considering both the Sensa granite and the Eco line by Cosentino. I love the look of granite, and it is often what potential buyers are looking for...something we have to keep in mind since we do eventually plan on reselling our house (not in the next five years, but eventually). But, recently, more buyers have become more interested in housing that is environmentally friendly, which is where the Eco line would be nice to have. All of the products in this line have at least 75% post-consumer materials, like bottles and mirrors.

We like these two options from the Eco line:

(black forest)

(starlight)

Kitchen Renovation: The Early Stages

Landon and I have been talking seriously about what it will take (fiscally, mentally and physically) to renovate the kitchen..and it looks like it may all be possible soon. We are SO excited about the prospect of a new kitchen since our current one lacks many of the features we want in a cooking space.

So what are we going for? Something similar to this:

We have a fairly small L-shaped kitchen, so we want to keep things light and airy. We currently have white cabinets, and we're planning on staying with that color. We would like to add darker countertops in the new version of the kitchen, which we think will work well with our stainless steel and black appliances (which were just purchased, so they will stay in the new space). Instead of the painted brick above, we're considering glass subway tiles, possibly in a white or beige. We're going to paint the walls a khaki, so either white or beige tiles would work well within that color scheme.

All we have to do now is really start budgeting...and counting down the days 'til the new space!